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In some used equipment I recently bought, was some plastic inner covers and hive bodies. The hive bodies inner-lock at the corners and seem to be very heavy duty. No brand name or identifying marks. Does anyone have any experience or comments on pro-con usage of this type of hive body. Specifically concerning moisture and insulation factors for summer/winter periods. Thank-you.

&gt;In some used equipment I recently bought, was some plastic inner covers and hive bodies. The hive bodies inner-lock at the corners and seem to be very heavy duty. No brand name or identifying marks. Does anyone have any experience or comments on pro-con usage of this type of hive body. Specifically concerning moisture and insulation factors for summer/winter periods. Thank-you.

I have no experience with them but they've been around as long as I've been keeping bees, which is three decades. They have never caught on. The people who like seem to think you can overwinter better. Some people in Canada that I have read about say they have overwintered a lot of one deep box hives many times with no problems.

I have a hard plastic top cover and bottom on my hives. I bought them at a local hardware store. They are unmarked, hard white plastic. I also have a plastic inner cover, but I don't like it because it bends easily even though it is dimensionally the same as a wooden one. I can't imagine that a plastic hive body would be better than a wooden box. They also let in light. I bought the top and bottom because they won't rot and don't need to be painted.

Today I went & picked-up some supers that I bought from a retiring bee keeper.He had a lot of the plastic hive bodies,& I asked him if he liked them & he just laughed.also he offered to give them to me,& HE DON"T GIVE AWAY NOTHING.so that answered my ?.I did'nt take them,

I just bought 5 hives with mixed plastic and wood supers and hive bodies. I just submitted an order to Kelley's for wood replacements. I'm just glad he had wood frames in there. The plastic hive bodies are old and cracking, the wood is just plain rotted out.

But the bees are wonderful, gentle, disease free and very active today.

I have several plastic hive bodies which seem to match what you describe along with a couple plastic bottom boards, inner covers and top covers.

The bodies are just fine, however, the other parts leave much to be desired. The inner covers tend to warp and end up resting on the top bars. The top covers get brittle. And the bottom boards are not reversible and only have the 3/4" opening resulting in mouse problems.

i bought a bunch of them with other used stuff.i don't care for the hive bodies,they bend and come apart at the edges as the plastic gets old.i've got a few of the inner covers,they warp too,but i like their durability.i really like the plastic outer covers ,they don't rot,don't have to worry about breaking them if they are hard to pry off.i use the plastic hive bodies to store extra frames. wax moths can't burrow into them.